A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, April 1950 — page 73: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

them. THE NINTH LIFE “Then it sprung straight at the child, lookin’ more like a davle’n a tame little cat, an’ I managed to put my hand out in time to stop it Jandin’ on her neck. An’ this is what I got—my hand tore to rib- bons so I had to go to the doctor to get it dressed an’ bandaged. An’ that cat the tamest, best-tempered little thing you ever see—you know my cat, Ted? That little orange-colored one I got.” “T know that cat,” the tractor-driver admitted. “Well, it went stark, starin’ mad. Hid under the couch—I made the child go right off to bed, an’ then tried to get that cat out, but not ti—till I opened the door. Then it tore off before I could do a thing, went up the tree in front o’ my house an’ sat up there with its eyes glarin’ at me like fires. So I reckoned this ain’t safe, an’ went an’ got my gun an’ shot it outer the tree before I went along to the doc- tor’d to get my hand dressed. I dasn’t leave it there alive.” In the following silence, Gees ordered and obtained another drink. Arthur said: “T reckon it got near that one you chaps got in the woods today, an’ got infected somehow—drove him murderous like that one was. Because a gentler an’ sweeter- tempered little beast’n our Frosty never lived, till tonight.” “Your Milly didn’t stamp on Frosty’s tail, nor anything?” Fred inquired. “Warn’t nowhere near it, any more’n 1 was, settin’ where I was,” Arthur in- sisted. *‘No, it was pure madness took the cat, all at once.” “Then J reckon it was like you say —that wild thing give it some disease what drove it mad,” Ted averred. “An’ most likely your Frosty was the other cat that gal at the Grange got frightened at —she said the pair of ’em was yellerish, an’ Frosty was yeller, an’ you chaps say the wild one was yeller, an’ the state that gal was in she'd reckon they was both as big as houses. That’s how it was,” Arthur lifted his bandages to look at an’ my missis ain’t half wild—there’s = blood all over the room where I tried to get that cat out. I felt I wanted that brandy—all shook up, I feel. Sorter faintish, now it’s all over.” “Tore my hand to ribbons, it did,” 73 “T felt like that, ’thout bein’ clawed nor nuthin’, arter we'd put that wild one up i’ the woods an’ shot it,” Fred declared. “But there warn’t no brandy anywhere about. Else, I’d had some, I would.” ““An’ I reckon, wi’ all the blood I lost outer these here scratches, another dou- ble ain’t goin’ to do me no harm,” Arthur remarked. “Gimme another double, Jim.” Since, probably because of the presence of a stranger among them, they ex- changed the subject of mad cats for that of—apparently—equally violent and anti- social farm tractors, Gees finished his sec- ond drink and went back to the fire in the dining room. He had heard enough to get him to considering the problem of Ernest Parkoot’s death from a new angle, and this bar talk threatened to prove more of an irritant than an aid to reflection. And still, no matter how he viewed the problem, nothing fitted—nothing made sense. CHAPTER 15 The Second Beast T TEN o’clock, while Gees sat A brooding by the fire, Inspector Tott entered, and observed with disapproval—“‘So you came back here. I really didn’t expect to see you.’ Gees said: “No? 1] climbed a tree and wrapped myself around the trunk. What’s u = “That sergeant of Perry’s had a nasty sort of experience, and I stopped to give a hand with him.” ‘Anything special?’ Gees asked, with faint interest. “TI was just saying goodnight to Perry outside the sergeant’s house,” Tott ex- plained. “And the sergeant’s front door opened and he came out tearing at his neck and yelling like all-possessed. It was a cat—his wiie told us it was a little pet cat they’d had for a couple of years, and somehow it had gone quite mad and sprung at the sergeant. Fastened on his neck, teeth and claws, and he couldn’t pry it loose. We got it off, and Perry killed it, and then we had to help Willis back in- doors and get him to bed, and get the local doctor to him. And that doctor told